Business sector calls for suspension of ELM’s chief financial officer
ELM’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) should be suspended and held accountable for the Eskom debt crisis and related asset seizures which not only paralysed the local municipality but severely undermined efforts to combat the Corona virus pandemic, says organised business.
ELM would still be battling seizures to offset its R2,3 billion debt to Eskom if the new Municipal Manager, Lucky Leseane, had not acted decisively to defuse the electricity debt crisis and simultaneously implement a response in Emfuleni.
The Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC) said appalling financial management and blatant deception of political leaders at ELM had led to a “preventable and unnecessary” debt crisis with Eskom on the eve of the Corona virus crisis.
“The GTCoC fully supports the welcome efforts of newly-appointed Municipal Manager Lucky Leseane to both stabilise the Eskom situation and to develop a coordinated response on the Corona virus and lockdown situation.
“But we again urge the immediate suspension of CFO Andile Dyakala as a matter of the highest public interest and in the interests of accountability which has in recent years of the regime of acting Municipal Manager Dithaba Oupa Nkoane been sadly lacking,” said GTCoC CEO Klippies Kritzinger.
An attempt to suspend Dyakala in recent weeks was withdrawn pending an ELM council meeting – now postponed indefinitely in the light of the Corona virus lockdown this week – after it was alleged that ELM’s political leadership had been misinformed on the Eskom debt crisis.
This month’s Eskom debt and asset-seizure crisis is the second non-payment debacle involving Dyakala within six months, coming on top of not only the closure of ELM’s smart meter programme – regarded as the best in Gauteng – and an almost permanent state of non-payment of municipal service providers.
Last year Dyakala also denied there was a debt crisis with Eskom and denied the authenticity of an Eskom letter highlighting the issue until the power utility itself threatened an electricity cut-off and confirmed the validity of the letter.
Dyakala’s failure to pay service providers as required by Law or to even say how he and ELM decided whom to pay or not to pay created much bitterness and hardship in Emfuleni.
